FINAL REPORT of the Review Panel on the Governance of Cricket

This final Report of the
CARICOM Cricket Review Panel is the outcome of three months of
consultation, interviews, deliberations, and meetings by a five member
panel of CARICOM citizens appointed by the Prime Ministerial Committee
on the Governance of West Indies Cricket. The composition of the panel,
its terms of reference and the list of interviewees are presented in
Appendices I – III. The main mandate of the Panel was to review the
administrative and governance structure of the West Indies Cricket Board
(WICB) and submit its recommendation through the CARICOM
Secretary-General to the Chairman of the Cricket Governance Committee,
Dr. the Right Honourable Keith Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada.
This is the Panel’s submission.

Introduction: The Existing Governance Structure

Caribbean
societies and the West Indies game of cricket have changed drastically
since the origins of the latter in its organized, competitive form in
the British colonial Caribbean, in the mid to late nineteenth century.
In the twenty-first century, the game of cricket is now embedded in the
global, corporate world of business. Caribbean people continue to
experience excitement or despair about what happens on every field of
play, to agonize about the fortunes, successes, failures or foibles of
the West Indies teams; but Caribbean cricket is far more than the
public’s support and consumption of West Indies cricket.

Cricket
today constitutes a global, multi-billion dollar social and economic
enterprise. The responsibility for delivery of this product at the
present time, given the corporate structure of the WICB, falls to the
shareholders, comprised of the six territorial boards, and the
overarching, regional West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). The
shareholders of West Indies cricket, led by the WICB, however, rely on
the active involvement of other stakeholders of the game to deliver its
product. These include several Caribbean governments who finance the
construction and maintenance of the stadia where the game is played;
several important industries such as tourism, aviation and food and
beverages; former players, some of whom constitute an elite group of
exemplary ambassadors of the game known as the Legends and the current
players, both women and men, and their representative organization, the
West Indies Players Association (WIPA) constitute another key group of
stakeholders. Finally, the Caribbean public completes the stakeholder
community on which the delivery of the public good of West Indies
Cricket depends.

In spite of substantial transformation
and modernization of the business of cricket in other countries such as
Australia (Cricket Australia) and England (England and Wales Cricket
Board), the governance of West Indies cricket has failed to evolve in a
manner which accords with the exigencies of the modern game, but
continues to be governed by a structure that is not reflective of the
transformation of the game elsewhere. This is especially evident in
relation to the requirements of the player-coaching community,
stakeholder investors, and the expectations of the Caribbean cricketing
public. The existing governance structure, in its most essential
features, remains closely aligned to its origins in the early twentieth
century when it was established to coordinate inter-colonial
tournaments, select West Indian XIs and touring teams, than with the
modern governance, administration and ongoing commercial progress of the
industry of cricket in other parts of the world.